World of Broken Dreams
by Raico
Summary: Ai, Yu, and Lisa never went to Wonderland. Their parents never disappeared. A reluctant heroine who doesn't exactly want to save the worlds. Updated with notice.
1. Darlanta, Vision of Hopes

**World of Broken Dreams**

Rayne: All right! I AM SO NOT GETTING ANYTHING DONE! For those that don't know me, I'm am the wonderful, magnificent, stupendous, extraordinary-

Vicky: Her name's Rayne and she's a psychopath.

Rayne: Yeah- wait! HEY! Okay, whatever. The point is that I'm a Final Fantasy/ Kingdom Hearts writer and I'm addicted. I finally got a copy of Phase 1 2 of FF Unlimited and once again, Square-Enix has showed its power over me by making me addicted to this wonderful anime. And now, since I can barely find any fan fiction on this anywhere that doesn't involve any Yaio or Yuri, by damn brain has made me resort to writing my own. So sorry all those waiting on my Kingdom Hearts stories, but I can't write them till I get this out of the way. BUT THEY WILL BE FINISHED!

Vicky: As finished as her creativity center is going to allow

Rayne: Pretty much. Okay, this story is going to be AU-ish since I don't know the full story of Unlimited. I know a lot about it, just not the whole storyline concerning Kaze, Makenshi, or Madoushi (I know who he is even though I haven't even seen him on the episodes. Can anyone tell me of Aura is Kaze's sister or girlfriend person? Because I keep seeing mixed information on that) All right. The story is Ai and Yu's parents never got lost and Lisa never went looking for them. I love those three, but I can't make a story with them in them. SORRY! Okay. The last world destroyed throws a girl, Saiya, into the world with the plants in Episode 1. This doesn't please the Earl at all…

**Note**: I bought the English Episodes so some of the usual words they use like Kaze's Magun speech-thingamabob is a little different.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Final Fantasy Unlimited or the amazing characters, Kaze and Makenshi.

* * *

**Episode 1: Darlanta, Vision of Hopes**

"_Welcome, visitors, to the world of Wonderland. I am Fabula, your guide. And this is Darlanta, home of those who are searching for hope. And home of two people who will find an adventure far more than they ever expected."_

-Fabula, the Guide

* * *

Feeling something jump onto her bed, Saiya opened her chocolate eyes and looked onto her bed. Her younger brother, Vause, sat there grinning at her with a piece of beef jerky hanging out of his mouth, his legs crossed Indian style. Again, he jumped up and bounced, shaking the bed and her along with it. She growled at him and sat up, partially pushing him further down the bed.

Her brother was a living replica of her, except in boy version. Like her older sister, Rachel, all three of them had dark blue hair and brown eyes. Vause's hair was cut just above his ears and spiked down between his eyes. He had slightly chubby cheeks, eyes tilted a tiny bit at the ends, and his nose was small. For some reason, he always liked being in a pair dark blue jeans, which were torn at the knees from all the rough housing he did with his friends, and white shirt with a ying-yang dragon on it. It was his favorite outfit this year; he was eleven. He grinned once more before hopping off and grabbing her hand. "Mati told me to come and get you so you two can go talk about guys!" he said, making kissing noises.

Saiya growled at him and pushed him out of her room. "Leave, Squirt. Go trip down some stairs," she mumbled the last part under her breath. He turned around, stuck his tongue out, and then ran down the hall to the living room. She ran a hand through her waist-length hair, or pretty much until she couldn't reach any further down her back, and closed the door. She wasn't that much different from her brother, except that she was skinny, which you could see in her cheeks, average height for a twenty year old, and the corner of her eyes tilted down. Otherwise, you could really tell they were brother and sister.

She grabbed some clothes from off the chair and changed quickly into jeans, a dark blue t-shirt, and a leather jacket she had fallen in love with. Saiya pulled her long hair into a quick ponytail, the hair moving back and forth as she walked down the hall to her awaiting friend, her brother and sister already gone to do whatever they did. Mati was one of those friends that you meet when you are little and know that you're going to be best friends until the day you die. Mati had short brown hair, just to her shoulders, orange-red eyes, a happy face with high cheekbones and an always-smiling mouth, and freckles dotted across her nose. She wore dark blue shorts and a purple sleeveless shirt.

"Wow, took you long enough, Sai. Over sleep again?" Mati asked, grinning just like Vause. Saiya glared at her and grabbed her bag from beside the couch, "No, my alarm didn't go off!" Both girls left the house, walking down the dirt streets towards the woods. Everyday they went here to train so they can be part of the guard. It was a sort of reachable dream, but it mostly gave them something to do during the day. More of a pastime than a job.

The air in the woods was damp, seeming to stick to their exposed skin as they walked. It was always hard to breathe in there after it rained, mostly because of all the trees so close together. The sky was gray and gloomy, though it didn't seem to affect Mati all that much. She was still grinning her head off. "All right, what's up? You're happy, but more than usual," Saiya asked, climbing over some fallen trees that were left by some of the woodsmen.

Mati didn't answer until they go to a small river, a log put over it for safe passage without walking through the water. "Kaori said that she'll start training us to hone our elements more than we already can. That means that we'll be trained officially!" she said, resting on the edge of the log. Saiya matched her grin and collapsed on the ground, laughing. "Yes! Finally, something good concerning training!" she said, closing her eyes. The wind seemed to pick up a bit, chilling her skin. A shiver crawled down her spine.

Opening her eyes, Saiya stared up at darkness. _What the…?_ She quickly sat up, pointing at the sky. Mati looked up as well, grin gone and brows furrowed. She echoed her thoughts out loud, "What the hell is that?" before meeting her eyes. They both had that bad feeling. In a second, they took off back towards their home, Darlanta…

* * *

When they got their, it was chaos. (Literally) Every ran and screamed, being cut down by some strange creatures. Saiya and Mati pushed through the screaming crowds, running for their houses, both side by side to one another. When Saiya ran into her's, no one was there. Panic ran through her and she quickly checked the rooms. When she entered Rachel's, something was huddled over in the corner. She clenched her teeth and walked over to it attentively. It was a dark purple, spikes protruding from the spine and the top of its head. It was hunched on its hind legs, large arms holding something.

She was just a few feet from it when its head went up and it turned around. It had large claws, covered in fur, and a mouth like a wolf. It growled and roared, the sound echoing in the empty house. Saiya stood frozen there for a second, before she took of to her room. The beast chased after her, running into the door as she slammed it shut before leaving. She was almost to her room when the door shattered and it came charging after her. Slamming her own door, she grabbed the heaviest thing closest to her and moved it in front of it.

Running to her bed, Saiya reached under as far as she could go until her hand touched sharp metal. The blade slit her finger slightly, making it sting. Finding two handles, she pulled them out. The two handles connected to two long blades, the metal of it curving in an arch. Her Duel-Cutlasses. It was the weapon she had trained with when both her and Mati decided they would join the guard. She wasn't an expert with them, but she was good.

Just as she got their sheaths and had attached them to her back, the door once again broke. The creature roared before shoving all the things out of its way. Saiya stared at it, calming her heart a tiny bit, and as it launched itself at her, brought the Cutlasses around. Both blades came in opposite directions, cutting through its scaly skin easily. Black blood spurted from the wounds, splattering onto her skin and clothes. It fell dead on the floor, claws twitching.

Saiya stared at it for a second, not believing she had just killed something. When another roar echoed just outside she went running towards it. In the doorway, another one of the same creatures was dead on the floor, head chopped off. Mati was there, panting, her arm blade out and covered in black blood. Mati's weapon, Armblade, attached to her arm obviously, a long pike blade that whipped out when you squeezed the handle. She glanced at Saiya, eyes wide and body shaking. "Let's get to the cave," she said with a trembling voice.

Nodding, Saiya grabbed her arm and began to lead her to the cave. Mati was still in a daze. Both of them had just killed something for the first time…

Their run through the woods was different this time. They weren't racing to go train or just to see who could get to the clearing first. They were running to save their lives. Something was killing everyone and destroying their world. This was the only thing they knew to do. Run. Just get away and live a moment longer. And that's what they did. The trees and branches slapped at their faces, nicking them here and there. Saiya felt a trickle down her cheek and she didn't even need to touch it to know she was bleeding.

It seemed a lot longer to get to the cave than it did any other time. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and it seemed almost as if it took days just to get to that one spot. As if everything was running in slow motion. Saiya was the first one to reach the cave, glancing back at Darlanta, the place she had grown up. The sky was black, the wind cutting at her cheeks. It felt like the eye of a hurricane, right before it struck again. The second time would be harder though, and most likely nothing would survive.

Mati pulled her inside the cave, candles already lit all along the walls, in the holes, and on a small table in the corner. They had placed a couch and a bed in there for when they slept here. Saiya sat on the couch, arms and legs shaking in the cold. Mati was shivering more than before, huddled on the bed. Both sat there in silence, hearing the echoing screams as more people died in Darlanta.

The ground suddenly shook, ripping both of them out of their thoughts. Mati glanced at her, eyes wide. Saiya knew what she was thinking. Don't go out there. But it was something that she had to do. As long as she knew what was trying to kill them, maybe she could get Mati out alive. The blue haired girl got up, hearing her friend start crying. Even as she walked towards the entrance, Mati screamed at her, "Sai! Please! Just stay inside!"

When Saiya got to the entrance, her breath was taken from her. The trees were being ripped up from the ground and sent into the sky in a wave of dirt. The ground was breaking up and pulled into the vortex in the sky. It was like a tornado, except this tore apart not just the ground, the whole world. Gray was all she could see as the dirt and trees came closer.

Then a sharp pain entered her shoulder, throwing her back against the outside wall of the cave. Her vision blurred, black spots dancing in her eyes. She managed to look down at her shoulder, and bit back tears. It always hurt more when you actually see what was causing you pain. A sharp, broken branch was dug deep inside, the split branches entering at different places. She screamed out in pain, feeling the cool blood dripping down her arms.

The last thing she heard was Mati screaming for her to be okay. Then she succumbed to the darkness, not knowing if she'd ever wake up again as the wind whipped at her, and Darlanta was destroyed.

_"Prophecy. A world of plants and wonder. Anger. So much anger. A man, who is searching for someone, will meet upon a girl who has last everything. The wind blows with the dawn of new hopes."

* * *

_

Rayne: Hoped you like this. The next chapter should be out in a few days, hopefully. It might take a little longer. Well, review and continue reading! (And will someone please make some more FFU fanfics. This sight has the most stories on the entire web!) RR!


	2. Mystery, The Wind and Mist

**World of Broken Dreams**

Rayne: Thank you for that review! That made me happy! I tried to contact about making a category and they haven't replied to me. I think they just don't like me. Hn. Well, I got most of the DVD's. All the way to Phase 5. That battle scene with Makenshi and Madoushi was so freaking sad! It made me want to cry, but then again, I cried at the end of Kingdom Hearts and when I found out the ending of Unlimited. Okay, I'm going to stop talking and let you read the story. Here's Episode 2!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy Unlimited; it's characters, or the worlds. I merely own my own characters, Darlanta and other worlds, and some of the storyline.

**Note:** Just know that some of Square's characters like Kaze and Makenshi (Kumo) will start to change. I was a little disappointed with the character development so I changed it. But the only reason why they didn't have much of one is because it was cut down from 52 episodes to 25. And it will also be longer and have more original worlds since they didn't have much besides those few worlds and the ocean puzzle. Now go read the story!

* * *

**Episode 2: Mystery, The Wind and Mist  
**

**  
**

"_A girl ripped from her world. A man lost in his. Destiny has chosen their paths and their fates. An emerges from the sky. What will become of our warriors now? There fate is wrapped in…mystery, the wind, and mist."_

_-_Fabula, The Guide**  
**

**

* * *

**

Saiya groaned, headache pounding in her head. Her hand was clenched around what she knew was her Cutlasses, but it felt as if she were clutching onto very reality. Her hand hurt from holding on so hard that it took her a while to regain her hand and let go. She could feel the ground underneath her hands, the loose dirt around her fingers. _How did I get on the ground? I couldn't have sleepwalked that much, _she thought as she tried to push herself up.

Her arms couldn't support her weight and she collapsed on the ground. Why did it feel like she had no energy? A pain engulfed her shoulders as if it were white flames, making tears stream down her cheeks as she swallowed a scream. Her brown eyes opened and against the light brown dirt, there was a large circle of red tinted dirt. Blood. It dawned on her suddenly what happened. _Darlanta_. Everything was gone. But how was she alive?

She remembered the branched stabbing into her shoulder and brought a shaky hand to cover the still bleeding wound. No wonder she was dizzy. Saiya didn't know how much blood she had lost but apparently it had been enough to make her shiver with the coldness of the ground. Rolling over onto her back, she stared up at the orangish-pink sky, a swirling center in the middle of it all. Dots still danced in her vision, the pain stealing words from her mouth. This wasn't Darlanta or any place she had ever seen. It was totally different.

There are few moments in a person's life when they are at a total and absolute loss. When they sort of don't even know what to do, where to go, or if they can even get up from the hole they dug themselves in. Saiya was having one of those moments. She laid on the ground, staring at the sky with her hand over her open wound, and silently cried. In her mind, she would bleed to death, but at least the pain would be over. It didn't seem like an option she wanted to take.

She had to move and find something to cover the wound before that happened. If she survived, that meant that other people could survive too! Right? She just hoped so. Taking a deep breath, Saiya grabbed onto the sturdiest thing she could find around her and pulled herself up with the little strength she had. Her back was propped up against whatever she had grabbed was, which appeared to be a tree of roots wrapped around each other, and took a breath. Whenever they had gone to the cave, she had had her bag of things. In there was gauze and some medical tape.

Looking around, she spotted the bag just a few feet away from her. Sadly, it seemed father, more like miles away. She kicked out her feet, her hiking boots that she had grabbed before leaving her room adding a few inches to her height, and almost reached the bag. She grunted and kicked out again, trying to grab it before she fell over and caused herself even more pain. The block shaped bottom of the shoe hit the handle of the bag and she dragged her foot towards her until her hand could grab the strap.

Hastily, Saiya opened the bag and dug around, until her hand wrapped around soft netting. She pulled it out and started wrapping the gauze around her arm. Pulling tightly, Saiya bit down on her lip as the pain amplified for a second. She tasted the metallic of blood in her mouth, her two sharpest teeth piercing the skin on her lip. Securing the gauze with tape, she closed her eyes and attempted to catch her breath.

When she opened her eyes she really looked at the place she was. It looked like the playground at the park in Darlanta, except there was a sort of demonic look to it. Roots wrapped around each other to form buildings, floors, and objects. The sky looked like a vortex, a black swirl in the middle of the orange and pink. It was eerie to say the least.

Adrenaline was pumping through her system, making her not able to stay sitting down. Remembering she had a hi-potion in the bag, Saiya went through the agonizing task of searching around her bag until her hand clasped the glass bottle. She pulled off the cork and drank a bit before pouring the rest over the wound on her shoulder. A wave of coldness ran through her, cutting right through the heat of the pain. It was almost painful, but quickly it subsided before she could react.

Her heartbeat was normal, the wound wasn't bleeding, and she didn't even feel tired. _From near death to running marathons, _Saiya thought. The though almost made her smile. That was her own way to hide nervousness. Stupid thoughts or bad jokes. She never had been good at humor. Deciding that staying on the ground wasn't the best idea, the twenty-year-old stuff the empty potion bottle and the extra gauze tape. Even though it was her decision, she was scared as hell of what was out there.

Those creatures that had attacked Mati and her were most likely the bottom of the barrel, yet it had scared the life out of her. Seeing its claws, fanged mouth, and the black blood spurting out from its corpse. It was hard to believe that there were worse things than that, but there was. And she had to face them. Not very willingly, but she had to. Taking a very deep breath, nearly hurting her lungs, Saiya pulled herself up with the tree and put the bag on her back. Her Cutlasses were in the sheaths on her back and her hand was grabbing onto the bottom of her leather jacket, which was now torn and bloody.

She walked forward cautiously; ready to sprint if anything else popped out. Saiya looked everything over carefully as she walked, already scaring herself when she touched a slide and thousands of blue flies scattered. Like she had said before, the roots made buildings and things. Beside the playground seemed to be an apartment building made of the roots, each having doors as if whatever lived there lived inside a tree. She opened a door with trembling hands, stopping when she spotted what was inside. Three insects, eating at a table, one of them a baby maggot. They turned towards her, food hanging out of their mouths. By that time, Saiya had already closed the door and bolted.

_ Wait! Stop being such a damn chicken!_ She berated herself as she leaned up against the wall of the building. _You're are never going to find anything out if you don't just brace yourself and keep an open mind to this all._ The problem was, she never had an open mind towards anything, not even in Darlanta. _Just try you freaking loser!_ Now Saiya just felt like slapping her own brain. She could do this! Hopefully.

Saiya pushed herself away from the wall and walked down the stairs that had let up to the rooms. She took some breathes before walking the length of the ground. There wasn't much else there in the part of the world that she was in. She would have to move onto the next-

She stopped, starring in horror as she looked down at something on the ground in front of her. The Cutlass Wielder had almost tripped, but had felt cloth touch her foot before she actually fell. On the ground was a long leg, black pants covering it, extended out from the wall. Her hands clasped over her mouth to keep her from yelling. This was so going to help her work through her fear.

Kneeling down to look deeper into the wall, all she could see was dark colors. When her eyes focused enough to actually see what was in there, Saiya's eyes widened. It was a man, tall, with reddish brown hair that curved into his eyes. A cloak was wrapped around his body, held by a golden button with an X engraved in it. From what she could see of his face, there were sunglasses over his eyes, one lens gone on his right eye. He had a three pointed marks under the eye with the disappeared lens and across his knows was a dark scar, apparently been there for an long while.

Saiya stared for a long time, too scared to move. This man was imprisoned in the tree. Vines locked him in, wrapping around his entire body. But she didn't know what had did this to him, and that thought alone scared her a lot. She reached her hand out to see if he had a pulse; her hand shook visibly. She took a breath to calm her nerves, just like she had taught Mati once. It didn't help. Blue eyes snapped open, making her jump away.

The twenty-year-old was locked in his gaze, feeling something easy down her spine like ice. Her hand dropped and only when she was forced to blink was she able to look away.

"…Where…am I?"

The man's voice was deep, dark, and sent more chills down her back. Saiya swallowed down a knot that was caught in her throat, thought it felt more like her voice caught there, and tried to collect her thoughts by counting backwards. She'd be doing this a lot apparently. "I think this place…is called Wonderland." He looked away for a while before whispering, "So…is that scoundrel here as well?"

Her eyes narrowed into slits for a second before she decided the best plan was to change the subject. At least for now. "Um…do you have a name, id, or…anything?" Somehow, she had a feeling he didn't. His blue eyes came to her's again and the shiver came back full force. She damned those eyes because of what it could do to her. "I do not remember my name, or even what I am…" Saiya felt worse now for being scared of him, frustrated as well, at the same. It wasn't her fault he had amnesia.

She didn't have any more time to ponder those certain emotions. A sound came from the sky making her and the blue-eyed-man look up. A giant ship hovered in the light sky, brown things on the bottom of it that looked more like dirt clods than things that could crush them. It looked like diamonds were stuck in them, but they were much too large to be diamonds.

Saiya turned back to the man and glanced at all the vines. He wouldn't be able to get out on his own if that thing attacked them. Quickly, she drew one of the Cutlasses from her back, but seeing that this guy would find her if he thought she was attacking him, went a little slower for both their sakes. She brought it to one of the vines that weren't touching his body and began to cut them loose. The vines seemed to retract into the tree whenever they were cut free, almost like a wire.

Even with the outer ones gone, he still couldn't move, or didn't but she didn't want to leave him there because of her misinterpretation. Taking the risk of touching/cutting him, Saiya slowly brought the edge across the vine that ran across his legs. It snapped after only pressing down very slightly on it and retracted like the other ones. There were two more across his cloak, which was lucky for her. She didn't feel like being that close to him and it was only cloth that was under those vines.

When all of the vines were gone, she stood up and ran into the open, where the ship could aim at her instead of randomly and risk killing both of them.

"Get out of here! Run! Move! Do something!" the blue-haired wonder yelled. She didn't know if he actually had did any of this or if he had even moved from his spot. All thoughts flew from her head as she watched the crystal drop down and crash to the ground. Her own terror filled her spot and she wanted to run again. What the hell had she been thinking?

* * *

A headache raised in her head, pounding her skull in the rhythm of her heartbeat. It was painful, Gawd, it hurt so much. Mati opened her eyes, blinking when she saw a light blue ceiling. _A room? _How did she get me in a room? She held her head as she sat up, a blanket sliding off her body and pooling onto her legs. Looking around, she saw the bag she had taken in Darlanta was sitting on a chair in the corner, her green jacket that was inside resting on top.

She had pulled it off in the cave so she could duck her head under it so nothing small from the debris screwed up her eye. Looking at herself, she become conscious of the fact that any cuts or bruises she had received in the destruction were gone. The only thing that showed the havoc was her torn clothes that clung onto her body. Reaching for the jacket on the chair to cover up herself, she hit the ground with a thud. Apparently, her legs weren't awake yet.

Mati looked around, hoping whoever had brought her to this place wasn't around. Her hand clutched the jacket like a lifesaver, and she wrapped it around herself. Darlanta was gone, her sisters, Tryst and Darra, were gone, Saiya. Oh goddess, Saiya was dead too. And she was alive. Her fist clenched tighter around the jacket. That made her remember something. Her right arm felt lighter, lighter than it did in the cave. Where was the Armblade!

Her throat constricted, making it harder to breath. That was her only weapon, she couldn't lose it! Her legs were still numb and she cursed them to hell. Mati hit them hard, but still didn't feel anything at all. Totally useless. She was very tempted to scream, but that definitely would alarm her "captors". Grabbing onto the bed, she pulled herself as hard as she could, eyes watering as she felt herself slipping back down to the floor.

The younger girl dropped back to the ground, head hunched as tears spilt over her red cheeks, effort and frustration obvious in them. "Dammit," she mumbled, wiping the tears away. Thinking to herself, the lone friend realized something, but it wasn't a good thing. _If only Sai_ (Saiya) _was here. She was so strong, she would have figured something out by now. Hell, she'd probably already be up and out of this place by now._ Mati let out a shaky breath, holding back more tears.

"You shouldn't be out."

Her body trembled in fear as the girl sat there, fallen off to the side of the bed, weaponless. _At least I'll be joining Sai and the others soon._ She barely heard any footsteps, the person seemingly weightless. Only when she saw white dressed legs in front of her did she know that the person was standing there. Her first instinct was to scream, but seeing absolutely nothing good in the idea, she did the second best thing.

Fought.

Mati threw her arms out, throwing punches from her position on the floor. She was at a disadvantage there, but she had to do something. Her legs were like weights, keeping her from moving anywhere, forward or sideways. It her "captor" decided to kick her, the only things stopping them was her arms. None of her hits actually hit the person and, even when the guy grabbed her wrists, she tried to hit him with all her might. He wasn't applying that much pressure, just enough to him her from actually hitting him, but when he did, her hands were frozen where he kept them.

She couldn't move at all. He wasn't hurting it, she just wasn't able to move her arms around, not even a centimeter. It was like being frozen in place, except it wasn't cold. "Stop. The medicine hasn't worn off yet, but when it does you'll just be hurting yourself even more. And that's very soon." Mati stopped, cheeks still wet with tears.

Her mind scrambled like eggs, cooking at the sound of his voice. It was smooth and held a slight accent to it. Even though she hadn't seen him yet, his voice matched him perfectly. No matter how much she fought against the feeling, the voice comforted her, making her relax. Well, body not mind. In mind she was scared out of her wits and no voice were be able to fix her mashed brains. Her arms went limp. Looking up, she met bright green eyes, something she didn't expect from someone so strong.

His hair was white and spiky, black horns crowning his head across. A ribbon was tied around his neck, light purple and white, and it fell down to his back. The shape of his eyes was majestic like and fit him perfectly. '_Like his voice.'_ She shook the thought from her head. His eyes looked innocent, which she was finding hard to accept according to his grip on her wrists.

The clothes he was wearing were all white, including the cape that was attached to his shirt. The shirt was long sleeved and covered his body well, showing a little muscle, the top part of it folding over around his collarbone. A black outline traced the fold over, making it stand out. Even more of the shirt came out under a belt wrapped around his waist, the end of the leather connected to a purplish orb. His pants were white as well, merging with his boots.

From what she could see, there was a sword behind the belt, coming out from either side of his body. It was white as well and had the same purplish orb as his belt, which held bottles of something clear, almost like air. Her breath was back to being even and rationality was beginning to come back. Only then did Mati notice that she was sitting fairly close with a guy she never knew. Finding her voice, she whispered, "…let go of me, please…" He did so after helping her up and sitting her on the bed. At that moment, she felt like crawling in a hole.

* * *

"_Prophecy. Cradled in mist, lost in the wind, travelers who cannot find their way to hope. A weapon of great destruction, a guardian of life. A choice of death or life without purpose, and loneliness seeps into their hearts. Next time Sotea, Choice of Death."

* * *

_

Rayne: How was this chapter? It's a bit longer than I would of liked since I'm trying to keep them the same length, but hey, maybe they'll all be this long. Oh, I found out they continued the series in Final Fantasy Unlimited: After and if anyone has the story of that, I only have some, but if anyone does then please tell me! I'm not going to risk spoiling something, but I know it deals with Makenshi, Kaze, and Lisa. RR! Until next time!


	3. Sotea, Choice of Death

**World of Broken Dreams**

Rayne: Nothing much to say besides thanks to the new reviewer! I'm really happy that at least two people are reading this story!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy Unlimited or anything associated with the anime series. I merely own the new stuff that isn't in the series.

**Note:** In case you're wondering, this still will follow the FFU storyline, I'm just adding more worlds and changing some things. So everything is probably still gonna happen. Plus there is some hilarious stuff in the series that I just HAVE to add.

* * *

**Episode 3: Sotea, Choice of Death**

"Welcome, guests, to the world of Wonderland. Two lost warriors find their way to salvation. One who is trapped in a whirlwind of fear, and the other lost in unanswered questions. A choice lies ahead. And more questions arise with…Sotea, Choice of Death."

**Fabula, The Guide

* * *

**

Saiya gazed at the direction the crystal fell, watching as the dust rose from the ground. She was stuck to her spot in fear and couldn't think about what to do. All that was in her mind was fear. Her body trembled and shook, Cutlasses still in her hands. Breathe coming out short gasps, it felt like she was hyperventilating more than breathing. What was this thing?

A giant figure rose from the dust, not too big, but big enough to make her want to run and scream bloody murder. No wonder it was taking her so long to train to become part of the guard. The crystal wasn't there anymore, but instead there was huge mushroom, an eyeball popping out from under the top of it. It had two legs and used them to run straight at her.

_Nice job! Just run out here all because you want to let the hot dude live! Now you're going to get killed!_ Sense came rushing back to her with these thoughts and Saiya remembered what had happened to her at the house. She had killed that creature with one move. Hell, if she could do that then maybe she could kill this thing. She rewrapped her hands around her weapons and took the position she was taught to by their trainer, Kaori.

Kaori had taught both Mati and her to figure out their element and what type of weapon they could use most. Mati's had been ice and her weapon: the Armblade. Saiya's had turned out to be a little more complicated. 1) Her weapon had turned out to be a hard one, the Cutlasses. And 2) Her element was Dark, which wasn't exactly a good one to have since it seemed to be the hardest to control. Luckily, Sai used it rarely so she didn't have to worry about the control thing.

Of course, she never fought an actual living thing that could kill her so that sort of canceled that out. _"Let your element come over you. Feel it coursing through your blood and throughout your body. Move that power into your weapon…and use it." _Closing her eyes, Saiya thought over what Kaori had taught her the first time they had figured out that little bit of info. Her heart slowed down to normal, mind straightened out, body thawed, and the fear eased out of her mind.

_"Now attack!"_

She looked up, the Mushroom Creature just a few yards away, running at her at full speed, and brought up her Cutlasses. Her power flowed through her like water and moved into her swords, almost magnetizing them to connect to one another. It was pure, uncontrolled darkness, and this brought some of the fear back. Could she really control this power? Or would it consume her?

Her grip wavered on the weapons and her hands shook hard as she tried to hold on. The words came to her, the knowledge of what to do to activate this power. It was just a glimpse of what would happen, but not really caring and just wanting to unleash this power so she can rest her hands, Saiya blurted out, "Dark Fatality!" A blackish goop unleashed from her hands, feeling much like it had inside, and wrapped around the blades of her swords.

The blackness swirled and danced, covering up whatever it touched with the dark liquid until both weapons were covered. Saiya felt the darkness sink into the weapon, making the metal look as if they were make black. There was a purplish aura around them and then, all the power built up. It was almost agonizing, trying to hold onto the Cutlasses, and this was only the build up. When the power was unleashed, she screamed.

The triangular whole that was made by the curve of the two connecting Cutlasses became a solid purple color, the power unleashing there. A beam of light shot out, taking the shape of a lightning bolt, and went towards the Mushroom. When it hit, the thing screamed in pain, flying back away from her and hitting the ground. The Element User dropped to the ground; swords back to normal, arms falling to her lap exhausted.

Sweat dripped down her forehead as the exertion from the attack began to come forth. That was just a simple attack. Just one simple attack; yet it took everything she had. She couldn't control the element, especially if there was a more powerful one. Thinking that the thing was dead, the girl closed her eyes to catch her breath and maybe get some energy back. But a scream of anger made them open up, eyes wide with astonishment. Looking up at where the monster had landed, one worse took its place.

The eyeball that was under the cap was attached to a long pink flesh thing that looked like the back of an eyelid. It extended to a yellowish body, with brown stubs for feet and hands. _Oh…shit._ She didn't know how to fight this thing. She couldn't call on Dark Fatality again, there was nothing left for the element to use. And Saiya sure as hell couldn't run up to the thing and start slicing away. It would stomp on her before she even got close.

There was only one option left.

Run.

And that's exactly what the young woman did. She took off at full speed, going as fast as she could to get away from the much, much bigger Mushroom. She was starting to lose her breath again as she kept running, exhaustion still having hold of her. Luckily, she didn't have to run anymore when she got to the end of the line. The edge of the land stopped her, almost inviting her to her doom, but Saiya managed to stop. No place to run, no way to face it.

Destiny seemed to be working against her when the edge she was standing on shook then crumbled, sending her over. Her reflex reacted before her brain and her right hand shot out, Cutlass still in its grip, and grabbed a rock that protruded from the wall. With the weapon still in hand, it was a lot harder to hold on to the small ledge. Her arm felt like it was ripped out of its socket as her body impacted with the wall. The wound on her shoulder ripped open again, blood spilling out from under the wrap of gauze.

Biting her lip to stop from screaming, the Mushroom guy jumped over her, landing facing the cliff edge instead of over her. Her blood stilled, realizing that she was the perfect, defenseless target for this monster. _Guys, I'm sorry…_Saiya felt like crying. Now she was going to die all because she didn't know how to control her element and just kill the damn thing!

The wind picked up, blowing against her face. Something felt different about this wind and it made her look up at the cliff edge. The nameless man stood there, cloak wrapped around him, his apparently really long hair billowing around him. _It feels like the wind is wrapping around him, almost like when I use the Dark, _she thought, brows furrowed. Her hand slipped some more, bringing her back to reality.

His cloak opened up, revealing a golden contraption on his right arm. He brought it up and if it weren't for her training, she wouldn't have known what he had said. There was a small circular light on top of the thing that blinked before lighting up. The man stared down almost as if it were normal, whispering, "It has moved." The monster blinked his one eye stupidly, not sure what to do. Bringing up the weapon in front of him, the man continued, "Soil…is my power!"

A small drill burst out from a hole on the side, spinning, before letting loose four long windmill blades. They turned round and round, gathering energy from the surroundings. Saiya could feel the power of it around her, sizzling over her skin. It felt amazing, like the power was gathering from all over the world. The golden barrel type weapon began to transform into something else. From three holes on either side, light burst out, then the golden case split apart.

The case began to disassemble, the pieces swirling around his bare arm. Coming together, one by one, it created a band on his wrist that connected to a weapon she wouldn't have guessed the thing was. A small string of gold went from the band to a circular barrel that made up part of a special type of gun she had never seen before. There was a small container at the base, right above his wrist, that contained something that looked strangely like a heart. This freaked her out just a tiny bit.

"The Magun has thawed…" the man announced, holding up the weapon, to her, in pride. The wind finally stopped blowing, which she was grateful for since her grip was not exactly the best one. Confusion rose in her. That thing was called a Magun? Didn't that mean magic gun or something? "The soil charge triad to use on you has been decided…" He grabbed a bullet from a holster at his waist, the casing clear, but lined in gold. Inside there was apparently…soil. "The origin of all things, Mother Black."

Flipping it into the air, the bullet holes on the back of the Magun opened up and the bullet fell in perfectly before the thing closed. _He's using soil?_ "A heat that will scorch all creating, Fire Red." Another one, apparently a red one this time, did the same as the one before it, leaving only one bullet slot left. "And finally, the critical point of everything, Burning Gold!" You get the picture with this one. She was right in guessing the container held a heart because it suddenly started pounding fiercely, sending waves of power all around her.

A drill on the side spun, gathering energy the whole time. The Magun glowed, in her sight, shaking with the power of the soil. The strange man's voice echoed up over to her, sending more chills down her spine. "Burn up, I summon you! Phoenix!" He aimed the gun and fire, an immense energy erupting from the gun. Three beams of light emerged, one gold, red, and black/purple. They swirled around each other before crashing into Mushroom; hitting the hand he had raised to block it.

Saiya took this time to stick the Cutlass that was in her dangling hand in its sheath and start pulling herself up. She put the other one away when she climbed up over the edge. The exhausted girl looked over at the first, skin tingling with all the strength that was in the air around her. The Mushroom looked around as the beams disappeared before wriggling around as if there was something inside of him. It writhed in pain, becoming larger and larger, turning into a huge red balloon with the single eye hanging out.

Looking over at the man, he seemed calm and…emotionless. Almost as if he wasn't the one causing this monster the pain, as if in front of him were just space. It was strange to her to not see emotion on someone's face. She had been so used to everyone wearing their emotions on their sleeves that she never really met someone who could mask it up so well. That or he really wasn't feeling anything at all, which she doubted.

Getting back to the monster, it let out a final scream of pain before exploding into massive fire. Saiya jumped back in surprise. That had been unexpected. The fire morphed into something, taking the shape of a bird, shooting up into the sky before taking a final shape. It body was a bright red and gold, flames making up most of the head and wings. The formerly imprisoned man gazed up at it, finally allowing her to see his entire face. She was right. He was hot. She hastily shook the thought from her head. Too much bad shit happening to think about that.

The bird let out a cry then flew up into the sky, breaking through a barrier that shattered it, revealing the night sky that was forbidden to come out. The broken pieces of the sky came back, filling in the places where they once were. Staring at him, the wind wrapped around Saiya, almost like it was telling her his name. _Kaze…_

She felt like she should say something, but something else interrupted her. A bad feeling, sort of like the shiver Kaze gave her except bad. There was something close that was very terrible. Taking a deep breath, she dismissed it. The Magun turned back to its original form, the heart lost in a whirl of blackness, the drill retracting, steam emitting from the golden case.

Kaze stared at the gun before hiding his arm back under the black cape and walking away. For a while, Saiya just stood there and blinked. Then, realizing that he might know something, she ran after him. "Hey! Wait!" she yelled while catching up to him. She ran up beside him, trying to find what to say. "That was…amazing! I've never seen something like that!" the twenty-year-old said. He continued walking, staring forward.

Saiya stopped, staring at his retreating back. "You know, it's rude to keep walking while someone's complimenting you!" He didn't do anything, just kept walking. Remembering what he had said earlier, she yelled, "Wait, you're looking for someone, right?" That got his attention. He stopped, and an image of him turning around and shooting her entered her head. _Oops._ A few seconds past before he turned to look at her, blue eyes locking her in his gaze.

Swallowing down her fear, she yelled again, "I'm looking for someone too! Maybe if we stick together, we-" He turned back around and started walking again. "Please!" Kaze continued walking, growing farther and farther. Saiya growled. She was fed up with Mr. Emotionless-But-Still-Hot. Practically screaming, the Cutlass Wielder shouted, "Fine then! Be a jerk!" _Stupid A-hole…_

Feeling slightly dizzy, liquid touched the skin of her arm. She stared down at her shoulder and finally remembered that the wound had reopened. "Dammit. Now where's that stupid bag…"

* * *

**  
**

It took a while for her to actually find the bag, since during the whole fight it had been scattered farther from the place where she had found Kaze. She had rewrapped her shoulder, put another potion onto it, and then drank some just to pain the anger off of her. It had helped considerably. That had been a long while ago.

Saiya trudged along the path, thinking things over in her head. Mostly how the hell she could find something to keep her from thinking about Darlanta being destroyed. Just that yesterday morning she had been with her sister and brother, Kaori, and Mati, taking for granted the life she had… Instead of avoiding thinking about it she had dove right into the topic. Stupid!

Mumbling a few choice words about idiocy and mind trickery, Saiya hadn't noticed the area she had walked into. Well, at least until she tripped over a root and landed flat on her face. She rubbed her forehead, but didn't get up. It was sort of like realization had tripped her instead of a tree. What was she hoping to find? What was she trying to achieve? As far as she knew, she was just walking around. No goal, no place to go, no place to stay.

She was officially screwed.

Mati. They were closer than sisters. And she was lost, somewhere out there. She could be alive, right? Would they ever see each other? Laugh over stupid stuff together? And what about Vause and Rachel? That seemed to fill in the questions that were plaguing her brain. Saiya had to find Mati, Rachel, and Vause. That was her goal. At least until she got the full story about what the heck was going on and decided to do something else. But either way, she'd still be looking for them.

The Duel-Cutlass wielder sat up, lying up against the tree root. Only then did she look at her surroundings. One word left her mouth as she stared in wonder: "Whoa." All she could see was gigantic trees that reached towards the sky and roots everywhere. It was nothing like the plants and trees in Darlanta. These seemed…bigger than normal. Which she sort of expected. This is Wonderland after all. Saiya sat up, dusting the dirt off her butt. This was as good a place as ever to start searching for Mati and the others.

It was a few minutes before Saiya realized that there was NO ONE there. The only sound she heard the entire time was that of the birds and insects. "Yep, no one's freaking here! That's sooo just peachy!" Saiya mumbled, hating the fact that just when she got a goal they made it impossible. Rubbing her hurt shoulder, she leaned her head back against the tree trunk and shut her eyes.

_Maybe if Kaze were here I'd at least have someone to talk to instead of myself. Never mind, so far he's coming off as not much of a talker._ It brought a small smile to her face. He said a total of what…ten words the entire time she met him. The rest of his words were when he was summoning Phoenix with the Magun.

Something soft suddenly jumped into her lap, making her squeak. She opened her eyes and looked down, calming a bit. It was like a cat, except bright red and had more than one tails. Four to be precise. But all were bushy and sort of merged together. The "cat" had yellow stripes along its back. It's nose was pink like a cat as well, eyes more like a tiger, but its teeth were extremely sharp, like fangs, and lined its mouth whenever it made a noise. "Muya," It squeaked.

She smiled, realizing she knew what it said. Things REALLY were strange in Wonderland. "Sotea. That's your name?" It squeaked again. "You wanna come with me?" At this it leapt off her lap and went deeper into the oversize forest. Finding nothing better to do, Saiya got up and followed.

* * *

"Prophecy. An evil tyrant. A protector of mist. Do not worry, Mati. Hope will find you. Waiting. Waiting for a chance to run. Though what to run from is a decision on its own. Next time…Protector, The Lords of Gaudium."

* * *

Rayne: Well, Read and Review! Episode 4 will be up soon, hopefully! 


	4. Protector, Lords of Gaudium

**World of Broken Dreams**

Rayne: Thanks to AmicableAmi and Feral Claw for reviewing! I really appreciate it. I finally got all the DVD's…up to Phase 5. So just two more to go! I'm getting closer! I know what happens in the next two Phases anyways. Oh yeah! Shake ya bon bons!

**Note to Feral Claw:** I'll try not to screw them up because I really like my head and I don't want to become headless. That's just painful. On the subject of Kumo and Mati, I don't like making it well the whole time they're together they're madly in love. That's just corny. I'm not going to say too much, but something will be going on between them. Or her at least. Like you said, Makenshi might be too busy to notice anything besides the orders he's given.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything related or associated with Final Fantasy Unlimited. Only Saiya, Mati, Sotea, and my original worlds.

* * *

**Episode 4: Protector, Lords of Gaudium  
**

_"Welcome, Guests, to the Night of Wonderland. I am Fabula, your guide…and she is trapped in a nightmare. Lost and hopeless, Mati must face the first of many tests that will make her stronger…or lead her to her death. But someone will keep that from happening. They will become her… Protector."_

-Fabula, the Guide

* * *

Mati looked at the man in white in front of her, feeling the embarrassment in the pit of her stomach. Her legs were still numb, but slowly they were "defrosting". She was actually starting to feel her toes. Looking down at her lap, she found her voice again. "Where…am I?" she whispered, her voice cracking a bit. She couldn't see the bottom half of his face so it made it difficult to see his emotions. The only thing she could see were his eyes; those majestic green eyes.

He stood up, looking down at her, and said emotionlessly, "You're in Gaudium…the medicine that is numbing your pain will wear off soon. I am here to make sure you don't injure yourself more than you already have." Brows furrowed in confusion, she looked up. "What do you mean 'more than you already have'?" The man stared at her like he was reading her, and that made her even more uncomfortable.

"Whenever you fought, some of your internal wounds were not fully healed. They will now heal more slowly than before," he said with his rich voice. Mati looked back down. _I hadn't felt any pain or rushing fluids in my body. Would I have felt anything anyways?_ A hand wrapped around her arm, not very gently, but that wasn't the point, pushing her back down onto the bed until she was lying down awkwardly.

"Stay here. I will come back later," the man said, walking out of the room soundlessly. There was something about the way he said those words that made her a little edgy. Okay, well maybe not a little, more like a lot. Staying in the room had nothing to do with her condition, it was more of what was outside of the room that he wanted to keep her from.

Curiosity was beginning to get the best of her. Standing up with the help of bedpost to support her weight, she looked around the rest of the room for her Armblade. A glint of silver shown from under the bed and she nearly slit her foot before she realized that it was her weapon. Letting go of the post, she let her body drop down and hit the floor. It hurt just a little bit, but she ignored the pain, strapping on her beloved weapon. It was in its stand by position, resting against her arm instead of pulled out.

She grabbed her bag and looked around for something that might get some feeling back in her legs. Finding a small bottle, she tried to remember what it was called. _Potion? Ether? No, those aren't it. It feels like the right one, so I'll take my chances. _Opening it up, she doused it down. At once there was feeling in her legs then a burning sensation. It felt like there was a fire hovering above her legs, so close to burning her.

Her eyes squeezed shut as the pain started to subside. Pulling herself up, she walked around the room before looking in her bag for the spare pants she had in there. Mati slipped those on and buttoned up the green jean jacket. She just ran a hand through her short brown hair before walking out of the room with just her torn up tennis shoes on.

The hallway was dark; the walls a light blue like her room, and the roof in an arch. Mati couldn't see the end of the hall either wall so that left her with the 'left or right' option. She decided to choose the right and if there were nothing there, then she'd turn back around. Her legs were still a little wobbly from the thawing, resulting in almost falling about ten times.

It was quiet; the only sound was her shoes hitting the tiled floor, and her light breathing. Then she heard voices. None of them belonged to the man in white or else she probably would have collapsed. Going forward as quietly as she could, Mati came to the end. The hallway led to a giant throne room, pillars lining the side and a throne chair in the front of the room on the lower level.

Laying on the rise from the floor was a woman, or thing that looked like a woman, with green skin and a flower for a head. Her dress was made out of petal and in her hand was a parasol that was made out of a bloomed flower. Something about her, besides the fact that she was a plant, made Mati feel very uneasy. On the other side, standing up, was a man/thing with a helmet on, a pipe coming out of its mouth, and he was dressed sort of like a mushroom. He didn't give her much feeling besides making her want to hold her nose.

The only other one she saw was a man with a white mask on, covering up all of his face. He wore black, red, white, and green and seemed to be hiding his arms. He was well…very creepy. The kind that made her think of the Boogeyman. Even if he didn't look evil, she could feel it crawling over her skin. For a second, he seem to turn and look at her. The feeling burst over her skin, making her flinch. He turned away, if he even did turn towards her, and the feeling dissipated.

In the throne, was a small child like person, who was eating something on a plate in front of him. Some ball type things were floating around him, connected to him with strings. He had pinkish hair, angry little eyes, and wore a weird outfit thing. This made her shiver the worst. It was very obvious that these people were taking orders from him, though she didn't now why anyone would take orders from a five year old.

Something white caught her eye above the throne. A well-decorated wall was behind it and in one of the grooves, was the man in white. His back was pressed against the side of the groove, head bent down, eyes closed, and his knee was brought up. The sword that was at his waist was in his far hand, wrapped around it in a comfortable position. She stared at him in confusion. Was he working for this child as well?

The white man opened his eyes and turned his head, feeling her eyes on him. Both locked gazes and it was like he was telling her, "I thought I told you to stay in the room." The child noticed this and yelled out in a small, but loud, voice, "Girl! Come out!" Her body froze as she stared at that man dressed in white. He saw the fear in her eyes, but closed his eyes. It was a clear message. "You brought this onto yourself."

"I said come out!"

Mati hid the Armblade behind her back, holding her wrist with her free hand. The blade was hidden under her jacket. Stepping out from behind the pillar, all eyes were on her. The small child smiled wickedly at her, his small eyes not showing any other emotion. Her breath was coming out quicker, and her heart picked up five more beats.

"What's your name?" the child said with his strange voice. She tried to think straight, but just mumbled, "Mati."

"That's all?"

_What does he want? A freaking introduction! _Mati felt angry. She wanted to know what was going on. She wanted to leave and hide, just so she wouldn't have to be around these strange people. And most of all, she wanted to see if her sisters and Saiya were really dead. "My name is Matidia Gulli," the brown haired girl said. The child's smile left his face.

"I am Earl Tyrant, the ruler of all of Wonderland!" he said, motioning all around him. _Wonderland? Is that where I am?_ The Earl looked at her, then the smile came back, "Now, what would you like to do?" She frowned. _Do? I want to get the hell out of here? _Before she could answer though, he continued, "You may leave, though then we may kill you before you even leave this room, or you can stay here."

_Wow, nice choices. _Mati looked up at the man in white, thinking over her choices. She could leave and try to hide from these people, but if the man were the person that was chasing after her all he had to do was say "stop" and she would. Swallowing her hope of finding someone from Darlanta, she frowned and closed her eyes. "I'll stay."

"Good… Makenshi…you have nothing better to do. You watch after her. She's in your care," Earl Tyrant said. Mati opened her eyes. _Makenshi? Who's that?_ Opening her eyes, she saw the man in white nod. _THAT'S Makenshi?_ Half of her mind was going, "Woo hoo!" and the other side was yelling, "Noooooooo!" Not certain what she was exactly feeling, she just nodded her agreement.

There was no reason for her to stay in the room with all those creepy people. So she left, not seeing the smirk on Herba's face.

* * *

Her room was quiet, which left her with only her thoughts. When she had returned, she searched through her bag with nothing to do. Inside she had found a photo album that both her and Sai had made. The cover was made of a box that had held a microwave and they had simply wrapped it with red construction paper. They were ten years old at the town and just doodled around the words "Photo Album". She smiled at their bad stick figures.

Inside were pictures from whenever the two girls first met, five years old. Saiya had her short blue hair that went to her chin, and Mati actually had long hair. Both were side by side in dresses, which was one of the rare times both of them wore dresses. She turned the page, stopping on one. Her lip quivered. Two older women were behind the two young girls, smiling next to two men. Darra and Tryst were there too along with Rachel and Vause. One big happy family.

_You never would have known that they abandoned us…_She turned the page quickly, finding happier moments. When the two were 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, and then when they hit twenty. Her heart hurt with the fact that she may never have a picture of them both when they turn twenty-one. That it might just be a picture of her alone. It wouldn't even be in Darlanta.

"Oh stop mourning. It's pathetic."

Mati looked up, book shut, Armblade hidden under the light blue comforter. The green skinned woman stood in her doorway, parasol balanced on her shoulder. "I'm Herba, one of the four Lords of Gaudium," she said, walking deeper into the room. "What? All alone in this room? I'd think you'd be running, going again His Excellency's word."

The Darlantan glared at her, feeling the want of cutting her flower head off. "I'm not running anywhere." _No matter how much I want to. I really don't feel like dying any time soon. _Herba smirked, glaring back at her, "I'd be careful or else I might just have to Hug-Hug you to death."

"Get out, Herba."

Both ladies turned to look at the doorway, seeing Mati's protector there. _Makenshi._ Herba lost her smirk, but not her annoyingly cheerful face. "Aw, Kenshi-baby, I was just having a girl-to-girl talk with Mati-dear. No harm done," the green woman said, staring at the younger one from the corner of her eye. The latter just stared at the man in the doorway. Makenshi repeated himself, a little more irritation in his voice than before.

Herba pouted but left, glaring at her from behind the white warrior. Mati sighed and looked down at the closed book. "Why did you all bring me here? Why…?" she whispered, her mouth in a frown. Makenshi moved away from the door and looked at her. He didn't have an answer for her. The Earl wanted her for some reason, but the child hadn't been the one to find her. It had been him.

_The White Cloud stared out from his position on one of the spikes that jutted out of Gaudium. Small comets were raining down, becoming smaller and smaller as they came closer to the ground. Another world gone. That was the second one in a week. Chaos was working overtime. He shut his eyes, holding back the pain of the destruction of his own world. _

_Something changed in the atmosphere and he looked out where the comets were falling. Most were gone now, but one was still there, not getting smaller or being trailed by fire. Looking closer, he realized it wasn't a comet. It was a girl. He let the mist envelope him and he reappeared on the ground. The person was falling faster now and if she hit the ground, instant death._

_He jumped up, racing through the sky and clouds until he was close enough to catch her. Makenshi's arms wrapped around her small, beat up body and he slowly descended back to the ground. The girl was smaller than she appeared, clothes torn up and bruises covering up every inch of her exposed skin. A weapon was attached to her right arm, but the wrist it was attached to appeared broken. It had been hit bad._

_Her hair was streaked with blood and dirt, the brown pieces sticking to the cuts on her face. She was hurt internally too, he could feel the blood run off her body and over his arms. Makenshi didn't know what to do with her. Certainly if he brought her back to Gaudium, she could get medical attention. But the Earl would never allow her to leave without the threat of being killed._

No one should be imprisoned in that place of misery_, he thought. He carried her bridal style, figuring out a plan while walking back to Gaudium. Things were changing in Wonderland, needing more attention than before. He would need to get her out of the place before things got bad. He didn't need another life besides his own to look after._

Mati stared at him, wondering if he was going to answer her or not. Finally, unable to take the silence, she muttered, "I'm never leaving, am I?" Makenshi turned around and looked at her with his bright green eyes. "Do you know how to use that weapon?" he asked. She blinked then realized that he was talking about the Armblade. Bringing it out of hiding, she unhooked it, bringing the blade to attack position. "Well I'm okay with it, but that's about it. Just enough to protect myself."

He nodded, eyes closed then said clearly, "If you ever want to leave, you have to become powerful enough that the Earl will send you out. I will teach you enough. Until then, you'll be with me wherever I go, unless the Earl says otherwise." Mati didn't know if that was a solution, or just stating what the Earl wanted. Yeah, being with this man wherever he went could at least give her some information. But if they just went where he went then she would never be able to actually look around for survivors.

"All right," she said, holding back her disappointment. He was helping her…even if it is just a little bit. Makenshi saw the feeling clearly and knew what she was thinking. When he had realized that his world was destroyed and the Earl had taken him in, all he had wanted to do was search all the worlds for survivors. Then it had dawned on him that everyone was dead, including his dear older brother. She had to realize that most likely, know one was out there; she was alone.

Kumo walked over to her, face reading nothing, not even comfort. "Get rest. Tomorrow you will begin your training," he said, arms crossed over his chest. She stared into his eyes, his voice washing over her. She was calm again, a little dazed, but calm. She nodded and broke their gaze.

Makenshi didn't wait for her to do what he had said, just left the room. He walked back to the throne room and went to his place in the wall behind the Earl. No one noticed him except Oscha, who stared at him interestingly. "Makenshi, so glad of you to join us. Your presence…was greatly missed," he said, going from happy to almost threatening. White Cloud glanced at him then closed his eyes, taking the same position as before.

The Earl whined about something down below, gathering Oscha's attention. "When controlling a world, perfect balance must be made to insure that nothing awful will happen. I have created that perfection. And now, someone is trying to destroy this perfect balance that I worked so hard for," Tyrant said, stabbing at the food on his plate. A small bug-like machine opened its eyes, light shining out of them and onto a screen. Makenshi opened his eyes, staring at the screen with confused eyes. Was this a trick?

_Saiya blurted out, "Dark Fatality!" The triangular whole that was made by the curve of the two connecting Cutlasses became a solid purple color, the power unleashing there. A beam of light shot out, taking the shape of a lightning bolt, and went towards the Mushroom. When it hit, the thing screamed in pain, flying back away from her and hitting the ground. _

_The Magun glowed brightly, shaking with the power of the soil. Kaze's voice echoed up over all around the land, filling the place with its dark sound. "Burn up, I summon you! Phoenix!" He aimed the gun and fire, an immense energy erupting from the gun. Three beams of light emerged, one gold, red, and black/purple. They swirled around each other before crashing into Mushroom; hitting the hand he had raised to block it. _

"No, no, no, no, no!" The Earl yelled, swinging his arms around, knocking over the bug projector and whatever food he was sitting on. Herba floated down next to him, resting her chin on her hand. "Oh, Your Excellency, you're so cute when you're angry," she said, a smirk, like always, on her lips. Fungus spoke up then, blowing the brass pipe in his mouth, "With your permission, Your Excellency, I would like to deal with the intruders at once."

Earl Tyrant fumed, yelling, "I want both of them dead! Now!" Fungus smiled; smoke blowing out of the pipe, "Gladly."

"Oh will you? You should have smashed the man when you had the chance, you Mushy-head! And you would have, if you hadn't been such a coward," Herba said amusingly. It was obvious that she was enjoying tormenting the mushroom man; just by the way she smiled when he blew up.

"What did you just call me? I came back immediately to report to the news quickly to His Excellency!"

"Whatever. You just stink the place up like mildew."

The Earl calmed down, holding his thumb in front of his mouth. "In all of Wonderland, I can't allow people to just do what they please. Am I wrong, Oscha?" All of them looked towards the Puppeteer. Oscha bowed slightly, "Of course not, Your Excellency. Rest easy…Lord Fungus I'm trusting you to take care of the outsiders."

Makenshi looked down at them, putting something together. That projector screwed up a lot with the images, sometimes getting ones from the past. Could it have just did that again? He was hoping so. _Black Wind…

* * *

_

_"Prophecy. A woman riding a chocobo. The lost traveler discovers a hope. But with every gain, there is a loss. No matter who the loss belongs to. Loneliness is truly a cruel things to those who do not crave it. Next time…Forest, Horo and Liru."

* * *

_

Rayne: Hoped ya liked this! I'm really on a roll with this. Damn I'm already going to be on chapter five and this is only episode 2 in the series. All well. Read and Review! If you might want to see anything in the story, then drop a suggestion. You know, like a world or anything. Anyways, R and R! Loves ya all!


	5. Forest, Horo and Liru

**World of Broken Dreams**

Rayne: Oh yeah! All the way to Phase 6! But dammit, its gonna be a while before I can buy some new games….CAUSE FF7: ADVENT CHILDREN IS COMING OUT SOON! BOO YAH! Sorry, I'm trying to cheer myself up and ignore the fact that most likely, I won't be able to find it anywhere. ANYWAYS, thank everyone for their reviews and here is Chapter 5.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything associated with Final Fantasy Unlimited. You'll know what I do own just by reading the story.

* * *

**Episode 5: Forest, Horo and Liru**

"_Welcome, dear Guests, to the world of Wonderland. I am your guide, Fabula. This young woman is Saiya, a survivor of a monster's cruelty and greed. And with her, she carries two weapons alike that have a terrible and wonderful power. And they have not yet begun to show their true powers. Things may change. Here in the…Forest."_

Fabula, The Guide

* * *

Saiya climbed over the oversized roots, following the small cat thing that was a LOT more agile than her. It wasn't like she was expecting to climb things when she woke up…sometime that day. She wasn't even sure what time of day it really was! She mumbled a few curses under her breath, holding onto a trunk as she rolled over another root. "Hey, you munchkin! Hold on a sec! Just because I have "long legs" doesn't mean I can walk over these things easily!" she yelled after the weird animal.

It stopped, though somehow, it gave the impression that it was sort of impatient at the moment. She didn't know how, but it did. Saiya glared at the small thing, though paid the price for not paying attention. She fell again. "Dammit! You freaking root from hell!" the girl yelled, a smaller root wrapped around her leg. She growled and unwound it, muttering about evil things in the world, mostly roots. Yes, very evil roots.

After her cursing session, she continued following the small creature, paying a little more attention to what she was stepping over. Her dignity wouldn't be able to take another blow. The thing had gone up ahead, despite telling it to slow down, and was now "squawking" at something. Pretty much it sounded like a mix between a growl and a meow. She shook her head and finally caught up, the "squawking" stopping.

Her hand itched for one of the Cutlasses, her eyes narrowing. _So that's why it was making so much noise?_ On top of the higher parts of the forest, there was a ragged looking old woman, resting on a chicken looking bird. The woman had greenish-yellow hair that spread out like fingers behind her head, a large pair of glasses on her big nose. Her face was wrinkled and drawn down, two ugly moles, one beside her mouth and the other just under the glasses, stood out against the lightness of her face.

She wore a green/blue jacket, a light purple t-shirt that tucked into blue pants and light blue boots. The bird she was on top of had a face harness, which had a mouth painted on it, and seriously looked like an oversized yellow chick. There wasn't much else to it, besides the fact that it looked pretty fast. She just didn't know if it could attack her badly or not.

"Excuse me! Can you help me?" Saiya yelled, climbing up to where she was, though still being cautious if the bird would attack her. The old woman stared at her, and then said randomly, "I really do love ALL the Chocobos!" Staring at the woman nervously, Saiya raised an eyebrow. _Someone's been drinking a bit too much wine…_ "Um, that's nice, but can you HELP me?" the blue haired girl said slowly, a little nervous beside the old woman.

The woman stared at her some more before sticking her nose up in the air, "Chocobaba, that's what some call me…at least that's the rumor." Saiya felt a headache coming back as she started to get aggravated. "Wow, that's an…interesting name," she mumbled distractingly, wandering what to say to get the crazed woman to actually give her an answer.

"Did you come from the Outside world?"

That brought her out of her thoughts. Her eyes narrowed, she looked down at Sotea. "The Outside world? What the hell's that?" Sotea looked up at her innocently, and then looked back at Chocobaba. "This is Wonderland! Out there is the outside world…at least that's the rumor," the woman said, closing one eye and looking at her. About this time, Saiya wanted to strangle her. _God, she is a lunatic! That's all she freaking says! _"And let me guess, you're from this world…" she grumbled, crossing her arms.

Chocobaba stared at her with her one open eye then finally closed both while sighing, "No clue." Her eye twitched. _Five, four, three, two, one._ She calmed herself down. Getting angry and yelling was going to get her nowhere, even if it did allow her to vent some frustration. She needed SOME answers, whether or not they would lead her in the right direction was a mystery. "Is the munchkin- I mean, Sotea yours?" Saiya asked calmly, getting a little bit of her sanity back. The woman scoffed. "Sotea! He's just a pesky hybrid! THIS is a Chocobo!" Leaning in close to her, the woman narrowed her eyes at her while patting the chicken.

Laughing nervously, Saiya drifted off, running her hand through her long hair. It had come out of the ponytail sometime when she had been walking away from "Plant Town". Deciding to try and get something out of her, she questioned, "Um, you haven't seen a girl with short brown hair, or a little pipsqueak boy and older woman that look like me, have ya?" Pausing, Chocobaba straightened herself and stuck her nose back in the air.

"Who knows."

Saiya felt like collapsing on the ground and start yelling. She didn't get the chance when the woman perked up, frightened. The Chocobo she was riding on squawked and she started off. "Oh my! This is bad news!" Chocobaba yelled while leaving her and Sotea alone. They stared at each other for a while, wandering what was going on. "I am not going after her," she said. The sound of hovering began to drift to where they were, stopping both of them.

_I think we found out what was so bad_, she thought, pouting at the fact that she couldn't do anything. "Sotea, if you have any suggestions then I suggest you spit it out now!" Saiya yelled, getting her Cutlasses out. The hybrid muya-ed. Apparently, it had none. Once again, she felt like collapsing on the ground. She growled and moved to duck under some trees so it'd miss her.

_Too late. _

One of the crystals from before dropped down, sending dust everywhere and blocking her vision. They just loved to do that. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't trying to kill her! With the exhaustion from using Dark Fatality earlier, her weapons felt heavy in her hands. The potion she had taken only worked for her physical wounds, it wouldn't help her recover her element faster. And she didn't have anything for that either.

Where the crystal fell, a mushroom formed from it. This one was different from the first one thought. The cap was blue and on its vanilla body, small blue caps shot out. For a second, Saiya couldn't hear what the things were yelling. But when they shot out more of the blue mushrooms, she heard, "Multiply! Multiply! Multiply!" Lots of them surrounded her, scattering all over the forest.

Seeing nothing to help her fight back with, she ran, trying to dodge around the mushrooms. One of them slammed into her, sucking her legs into the cap. "AH! GET THE HELL OFF ME, YOU BASTARD!" Saiya yelled, stabbing the thing over and over again with her Cutlasses. The blades simply went in and out, leaving no wounds or traces that the mushroom had been stabbed.

"Muya!"

She looked up, seeing Sotea running up and jumping into the air. The small cat clamped its mouth around the mushroom cap that had her and ripped the chunk out, then started assaulting it with his claws. Chunks kept flying out until all that was left was small lumps on the ground and Saiya lying there disheveled. Rubbing her legs, she shivered while feeling icky.

Rubbing it on the head, she muttered, "Good boy…now start on the others." He looked at her like she was crazy for a while then took off…in the wrong direction. Watching him go, Saiya yelled, "Hey! You traitor!" She pressed her lips together, growling, "Fine! Leave me all alone here to take care of myself! No one needs you, you big loser!"

Many of the mushrooms slammed into the ground, trying to get at her again. She was beginning to get tired from dodging. Her foots would falter for a second or she wouldn't land right after jumping. It was too much. Finally, the things caught her. One of the caps slammed into her while she was in the air, launching her into the ground. She cried out as her back was hit against a rock. The blue cap sucked her legs in, a stinging feeling entering her legs as it constricted around her.

_Dammit! Why do things always have to try and kill me! Do mushrooms have it in for me or something! _She cursed everything at the moment, seeing her Cutlasses on the ground a few feet away. Saiya must have dropped them when she was hit. Her teeth bit down onto her lip as the mushroom tightened around her. "Grrrr……MATI!"

A gunshot pierced the air, silencing her scream. Her legs were free, the pain from them starting to dim away. Catching her breath, she stared at the ground for a second. Was she really prepared to face the world alone? Dammit, she didn't know. But that sure was scary as hell. Mushrooms had it in for her. "Hey…"

Whipping around, she saw her dark "savior". Okay, so he wasn't her's but he did save her. Kaze stood there, staring down at her with his blue eyes. The shivers came back and she cursed at them inwardly, wishing he had different eyes. "Kaze," she whispered, standing up. "I have something I want to ask you," he said unemotionally. It matched the look on his face. He wasn't concerned in her well being, just getting what he was looking for.

Looking down, Saiya nodded. Another crash interrupted them as more of the damn mushrooms appear. "What is with all the damn mushrooms! I don't even like them!" she yelled, glaring at them. Kaze turned around, a red gun in the hand that didn't have the Magun on it. He fired off round after round, each destroying the mushrooms. One final one was left, bullets battering its body until it shrunk into a small mushroom.

_Someone's a little trigger-happy._

Saiya looked around, still not seeing Sotea. She was angry at the small hybrid, cursing it under her breath fiercely. _Some courage you have, stupid loser. At least I stayed around,_ she argued. _Yeah, but you also almost got killed. And would have if Kaze hadn't come._ She ignored that part of her brain. For once she wanted to be right, even if it is only in her head. But that was a dream that, likely, she would never achieve. A whistle echoed off from one of the trees, making both look up.

A weird man with a "jeweled" helmet stood on a broken branch, a brown cloak hanging off from his orange and green shirt. A blue sash, if you would call it that, went across the front of his chest, a brown and gold belt under it. A weird shape pipe hung out of his pointy mouth, looking more like Sotea's mouth than a man's. He wore orange and yellow gloves and that was about it.

"Man of the Black Wind, and the girl…so, the intruders finally make an appearance!" the weird man said, arms crossed. Saiya glared at him. _Oh! So Kaze gets a cool name and all I get is "the girl"! That is SO messed up!_ Sometimes, she wanted to shut her brain off when it made stupid comments at the wrong time. Here they were, facing an enemy, and she was angry about the fact that she was just called "the girl".

Kaze stared at the mushroom a while before bringing the red gun up and starting to shoot. The bullets made a ringing sound, but none of them were injuring this man. That didn't stop him from keeping on shooting. Like she had thought before, he was apparently very trigger-happy. Whenever Saiya looked more closely at the helmet man, she saw all the bullets Mr. Trigger-Happy had shot in his mouth.

_He is definitely not human!_

Mushroom man chewed them for a while then spat them out, all the bullets just a mixture of spit and metal now. "I am Fungus, one of the four Lords of Gaudium! Greetings. In the name of His Excellency, I am here to exterminate you!" Fungus yelled, blowing smoke or something out of his pipe. At least she had been right that he was some sort of mushroom.

"Why don't you run off and mess with someone else, you ass-"

"Muya."

Saiya stopped and looked down beside her leg. The traitor hybrid sat there next to her, holding what she knew was an Elixir in its mouth. Maybe he wasn't a traitor after all. "Ha ha! Thanks, little buddy," she said, getting the Elixir out from his mouth. Drinking some, she felt the welcoming feeling of her element back in her blood, more there than before she used Dark Fatality.

"Oh, you are so dead now!"

Taking a deep breath, she gave a final glare at Fungus then grabbed her Cutlasses from the floor. She closed her eyes, bringing her senses out to feel the darkness in everything around her. It was everywhere, in everything, in everyone. You couldn't deny it, you know that there is that spot in your heart. And that was what she used. She took the darkness and drew it into herself.

She pushed the darkness into the Cutlasses and the rest came easily to her, or some of it did. Stabbing both into the ground with her palms resting on the butt of the handles, Saiya felt more darkness go into them from the ground, her body shaking from the force of the power that was driving into the weapon. The force backed off for a while, making her open her eyes and look down.

Her eyes widened. The two Cutlasses didn't look the same. Her left one was an ivory color, a dark purple stripe swirling down the length of it. A world was written in white inside the stripe. _Horo._ The other one was the opposite, a white stripe and dark purple base. Once again, a word was written in the stripe. _Liru._ Her mind couldn't ponder it much longer as the force came back more powerful than before.

_Shit, this is way too much. It feels a lot stronger than before with my first attack!_ She cleared her head, trying to find the words to unleash the power. The inky darkness emerged from her hands, wrapping around her arms and Horo & Liru. A pressure pushed against a barrier in her mind. Saiya could hear the echoing in her head as it continued to hit against her head.

It took a moment to realize what it was that was trying to break through the barrier. Darkness. It was trying to get her to submit to it. No wander Kaori said it was difficult to control. When you use it, it tried to take over you. It wanted her to succumb to it, to be engulfed in it. Fear pulsed through her. She couldn't rely on it that much then, not if it would keep doing this every time she did an Element Attack. Saiya had to be strong with her Cutlasses, not with her element. This was a set back.

But it was too late. She had already summoned the darkness for this attack. All she could do was try and unleash it before it broke through the barrier that made up her control. Panic was racing in her blood, her heart picking up a few beats. Dammit, what were the words! _This didn't happen the first freaking time, why now! _She felt eyes on her, piercing eyes that bore holes in her skin.

Looking up, Kaze was staring at her with the same emotionless look like before, but there was something there. Suspicion? She didn't know. For a second, time stood still. Everything came to her then. Saiya felt like smiling, looking at him. She knew the words. Glancing at Fungus, she yelled out, "Abyss Warp!" The darkness that was wrapping itself around her arms seemed to pause for a second then quickly went downwards to the ground, spreading out in the dirt.

Dark spikes suddenly launched up from the ground, looking like small black mountains. Then they shot out, heading towards Fungus. Saiya collapsed on the ground, the thumping in her head stopping. Her breath was ragged and heavy, exhaustion evident. The spikes hit its target, but only one stuck. The dark spike went through Fungus' shoulder, staying stuck there.

He grunted, "Is that all you've got? I've faced worse things exterminating bugs!" Fungus laughed, making her want to cry. All that freaking energy and it didn't even kill him. "Shit!" she yelled, grabbing Horo and Liru from the ground. _Nice job, you idiot!_ She continued to glare at him, not knowing what to do. A shiver went down her back as the wind picked up, the air hitting her exposed skin through her tattered clothing.

Her skin tingled as the familiar feeling of power rolled over her. Her eyes went to Kaze as she saw his cloak open and the Magun come out. "Yay, a five minute break," she joked under her breath, backing away so as to not get caught in the summoning. "It has moved," she heard him say, "Soil…is my power!" The Magun began its transformation as before, the drill then the blades coming out.

The loose energy that she did not use from her attack was drawn away from her, making her glad that she didn't have to have that inside of her. It wasn't a nice feeling, having that much darkness inside of you. As the Magun glowed in its final form, she sort of felt relieved that she wasn't the one fighting this guy. She felt physically and mentally exhausted, not to mention shaken up.

"The Magun has thawed," Kaze said, holding up his newly transformed weapon. "Alleluia," she mumbled. "The soil charge triad to use on you has been decided…" He did the same as before, grabbing a colored bullet from his holster. "An infinity that surpasses the heavens, Sky Blue!"

One.

"A completeness that goes through solid ground, Earth Brown!"

Two.

"And finally, the deception to hallow out a dimension, Magic Violet!"

Three.

All the bullets were in place, the Magun shaking with the power of the soil. The drill kept gathering power, giving birth to the Summon. Saiya watched, the heart beating faster and faster as the end of the gun glowed. "Come out! I summon you! Typhoon!" he yelled, the power unleashing in a swirl of blue, light purple, gold, and smoke. The colored energy hit Fungus' chest, making him laugh.

"Is that all you two have got! I can take this all day!" Fungus laughed, the colors disappearing. Saiya stared, eyes wide. _The Magun had no affect. Yeah, I just met Kaze earlier but he wouldn't be that stupid not to choose something that would work!_ She looked over at the man in question, staring at the seriousness in his blue eyes. He was up to something. Waiting. Always waiting emotionlessly. "You're not going to do anything with that!" their enemy yelled.

A small glimmer of light appeared in front of Fungus, radiating light. He seemed confused for a second, wondering what the thing was. "What's that?" he asked as a small pink/ purple machine appeared in front of him. Something came out of it, lighting up along with the rest of it. A shroud of light went all around Fungus, making it hard for Saiya to see what was going on.

Suddenly, a clear cube popped up all around Fungus and the place he was in. She stared astonished. Then the clear cube began to get smaller, the place where it was becoming black. And along with the cube, Fungus. "What the heck! What horrible thing have you done to me!" he yelled, getting smaller and thinner, being squeezed into the small collapsing square. The dark spike in his shoulder began to dissolve, leaving his body.

_That's not cool! He summons this little thing and beats him while I do this whole big cool thing and it doesn't do shit!_

"Typhoon is one with the wind. He is a summon…that will disappear along with the space that imprisons him," Kaze said, staring behind his sunglasses. "Hey wait a minute! You can't do this to me! You can't do-" he was caught off when the cube became too small and disappeared. The black space that was where the cube used to be began to return to normal, the top half of the tree gone along with Fungus. "Whoa," Saiya mumbled under her breath. _I just knew he wasn't THAT stupid_.

* * *

"Um, White Cloud? I don't know anyone by that name…I don't know anything about this place," Saiya mumbled, wrapping her hands around herself. She really wished she could help him but she had to face it, she was lost in a world she knew nothing about and people were trying to kill them. With mushrooms. "But…maybe if we stick together we could find who we're looking for. It's fast-"

Kaze turned around, starting to walk away. "Wait!" He stopped. "Thanks…for saving me and…everything. I…appreciate it. A lot," Saiya said, looking at his covered back. He stayed there for a second then started to walk away again. She smiled sadly, wishing he would at least join her. It made her feel a lot safer, that and she wanted someone to talk to. Sotea wasn't exactly the perfect company.

Sotea "muya"-ed, as if hearing her thoughts and protesting. She smiled down at him and watched as the only human that had actually helped her left. _Kaze…you stubborn jackass._ _Why do you have to be like that? _A tug on her arm brought her back to the small hybrid. "What?" she asked, bending down. He began to hop away, going over and around the overgrown roots. "A subway? What do you mean there's a subway?"

Following the small thing, she ran around the roots. _Finally! Maybe something a lot quicker than walking! _Choirs sounded off in her head, singing "Alleluia". She could actually rest and not meet kooky people! Sotea lead her through a hole in a tree trunk, making her feel a little sketchy about going through a dark hole to a place she knew nothing about. For all she knew, he could be leading her into a trap. He abandoned her once, he could do it again.

On the other side was a huge dark red staircase, leading down to…a subway. The choirs came back. "YES! Good news!" she yelled, taking the steps two at a time. For a while, it seemed like it would never end. A bell rang, sounding similar to a departure bell. There was a door! Woo hoo! She ran inside, being startled by the fact that despite the outside appearance that looked like a monster, the inside was a regular subway.

"Here goes nothing," she mumbled taking a seat as the Subway left the staircases. She closed her eyes, feeling sleep weighing down on her. Her last thoughts were of someone that despite was beginning to annoy the crap out of her, brought her safety she never thought would come out of this world. This thought made her smile.

* * *

"_Prophecy. People that hide in despair. The hope of a new day. Never lose your way, Saiya, and never lose your faith. Guidance will come, even in the most unlikely of people. Along with forgiveness. Next time…Faith, Lost Hearts. Come back for more Unlimited Guidance."

* * *

_

Rayne: I hope everyone liked this! It's a lot longer than I expected. But I was trying to fit the whole episode into one chapter. I'm running behind. Well, read more and review! And check out my friend's poems in my little posted thing, Unlimited Guidance!


	6. Faith, Lost Hearts

**World of Broken Dreams**

Rayne: I HAVE REVIEWS! MUHAHAHAHAHA! Okay, thanks for all of you who reviewed, especially my chicka, Andrea! I want to see those damn pictures and your story! Don't make me go all Mr. Todd on ya! And excuse me if this sucks, I'm in pain and on painkillers. I'm drugged up! WOO HOO!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything that is associated with Final Fantasy Unlimited. Square-Enix holds those rights.

**Note:** Some of the dialog is from the series and since I have the American one, I'm going by what they say in that one, but I did revise it sometimes to broaden it.

* * *

**Episode 6: Faith, Lost Hearts**

_"Welcome, dear guests, to the world of Wonderland. I am your guide, Fabula. In this place, people have forgotten their search, finding only emptiness. Don't fall into their misery, Saiya. Never lose sight of those you are searching for. And don't beware what is inside of your heart. It is a part of you. Have…Faith, Lost Hearts."_

Fabula, The Guide

* * *

A lot of time had passed since Saiya had entered the Subway, and a long time since she had realized how boring this trip could be without someone to talk to. Sotea was on the bench opposite to her, sleeping. Kaze was god only knows where and she had no clue where they were going or what she was suppose to do. And what was worse, SHE HAD NOTHING TO DO!

With Saiya, boredom was probably worse than death and the damn mushrooms that kept trying to kill her. It was the fact that she was left alone with her thoughts and when she's left alone too long, she runs out of them. Groaning, she laid down on the seat, arm over her eyes. She had to have something to keep her occupied!

Something clicked in her head. "Muhahaha," she whispered, grabbing her bag from the floor. _I wonder if it's…Ah ha!_ She smiled, yanking out a yellow and black CD player accompanied with headphones. "Score!" Saiya yelled, pumping her fist in the air. With a little more searching, she found her CD's. "Oh I am so good," she muttered, placing one of her disks in the slot.

She looked up at the animal across from. "Don't tell me not to talk to myself. If you weren't so lazy then I'd be talking to you, but noooo. Ya know, sleep isn't that great-" Saiya stopped. She really shouldn't be talking since just a few days ago Rachel was getting onto her for sleeping in until one and missing her weapons training with Kaori, which happened to get her kicked out of the school.

"Never mind."

Resting her head back, she placed the headphones over her ears, letting the music take her somewhere else. Letting it take her back home….

* * *

_"Saiyanora, wake up now! I'm not putting up with this anymore! Grrrr!"_

_Saiya opened her eyes a tiny bit, glaring at her older sister from under the huge wall of blue hair. "No one ever said you had to put up with me. Ignoring me would do just fine too…" she said sleepily. Rachel glared at her, throwing her hands up and leaving the room angrily. "You are such a brat!" A small smile came onto her face as she dove back under the covers. _

_Rachel and her weren't exactly the closest of sisters. Not since their mother had left them and a four month old Vause to themselves. Kaori had taken care of them until Rachel turned fifteen, making Saiya thirteen and Vause four. It was a lot easier than a seven year old taking care of two babies (Saiya included even though she was five). All of them thought that their mother hated them, Saiya the most._

_And Rachel didn't help reduce that feeling. Any time they had a big fight; she would slap it at Saiya's face, which hurt a lot. But she would appear to brush it off, retaliating with her own firepower. Things were bad. It was one reason that Mati and her had the cave; when she got kicked out she could at least go somewhere for the night and not mooch off Mati's sisters, Darra and Tryst. Most likely she'd be in the cave tonight._

_Running a hand through her hair an hour later, she got dressed in some pants, t-shirt, and her favorite jacket and walked out of the room, closing it behind her. Vause was gone, at school like usual. It was noon. She was late for training again. Saiya hated it when Rachel had something to brag about. Cutlasses in hand, she tried to sneak across the hallway, crawling on the floor to duck around the couch._

_"Lady Kaori called. Mati called too, an hour ago. Both are wandering why you aren't in training, which started…what, thirty minutes ago!"_

_Grumbling under her breath, she stood up, glaring at her sister. "I was just coming back, I just had to get-"_

_"Bullshit, Saiya! No wonder you can't fight! You don't even want to commit yourself to do even that!" Rachel yelled, her short blue hair curved into her angry light brown eyes. They glared at each other for a moment, both not giving up. When they were angry, they were stubborn about it. Then Saiya fired back, "Not know how to fight? Rachel, all you know is how to cook and clean and you tell ME that I don't know how to fight! I think you need to sort some stuff out!"_

_"Get out, Saiya."_

_"You can't kick me out of my own home! Again!"_

_"I said get out, Saiyanora. Come back tomorrow, but don't stand there and do this. I don't want to put up with you today."_

_"Put up with me. So that's what you call it. Why don't you just call me the mistake like you always do! Oh wait, how about the person that drove Mom away! Huh! You say it about everyday, why exclude today?"_

_"Get out!"_

_Saiya glared at her, both not aware of Vause standing in the doorway, coming home for lunch. The younger girl walked, patting him on the head as she left the house. Vause stood there, watching as his sisters went separate ways, Rachel putting on a smile for him and acting like nothing happened. She was becoming better at hiding her hatred…

* * *

_

That day, Saiya had lost more of her sister, her training, even her home. Kaori had called her irresponsible and told her when she shaped up then she could come back to training. Until then, she was on her own. Mati had quit shortly after. They were sisters, blood or not. They were a lot closer than her real sisters. And they always would be. Even when they were so far away…

Hearing the opening of doors under the sound of singing blasting from her headphones, Saiya opened her eyes. Sotea was all ready stretching and jumping down from his seat, not waiting for her. She glared at him, quickly stuffing her CD player back into the "safety" of her bag before following, barely missing getting hit as the doors to the subway closed. Looking up, she grumbled as she saw the massive amount of stair climbing she would have to do.

"I so better not get attacked by mushrooms whenever I get up there," Saiya mumbled, starting her ascent up the giant staircase. A few minutes passed, Sotea arriving at the top LONG before she did. _Damn creatures with four legs…_By the end of her climb, she was crawling up the steps and plopping down on the ground, taking a breather. Her smaller companion squeaked at her, jumping around and trying to get her to keep going. But when she was tired, she was TIRED. No getting her out of it.

"What is just up ahead? I'd like to know where the hell we're going, you know!"

Saiya yelled, finally getting up. The hybrid ran up ahead, disappearing into a dark space. Cursing at the thing like a rabid sailor, she followed, stopping to take a look around when she finally caught up. The place was like a house of Jell-O, except it was stable and what connected everything to each other was a mass amount of bridges, criss crossing back and forth.

As far as she could see everything looked like grapes, groups and groups of green and purple grapes. From the distance they would look normal, except that they were the size they should be up close. But she had a feeling that she was standing inside one of the smaller ones. Either this place just liked fruit, or there was something really big that ate the fruit. She was hoping that it wasn't the second choice. Saiya couldn't deal with "Jack and the Beanstalk" giants.

Creatures crowded the bridges that connected the grapes together like vines. All of them were draped in brown cloaks, their faces hidden under the hood. She couldn't hear what they were saying but most of them were mumbling solemnly to one another, grabbing handfuls of the grape houses and stuffing them under their hoods (and hopefully into whatever they had as a mouth).

Poking the "doorway" she found her finger sunk right in, feeling just as it looked. Squishy. Going up close, she sniffed it, surprised to find that it smelt like Watermelon. "Holy shit, food!" Saiya said as she grabbed a handful of the Jell-O stuff. Sotea looked up at her from her feet, giving her as strange a look as the animal creature could pull off. "Shut up, I'm hungry," she mumbled. But before she could stick it in her mouth a shiver came over her body.

Her mind yelled at her to look up, that there was something out there that she needed to see, but with the temptation of food right there in her HAND, if was hard to follow it. She was a pig, she couldn't help it. Deciding to look just to shut the yelling up, Saiya dropped the food in her hands and complied, looking out towards the bridge. Then she knew why she had shivered.

Crossing the bridge, she caught a glimpse of black cloth and long brown hair, the golden capsule she came to know as the Magun barely seen from under the massive cloak. _Kaze, that ass, _she thought. "Sotea, look, it's Kaze," she said, pointing to the bridge. But the hybrid only cocked his head. Looking to where she was pointing, the girl blinked. He was gone. Blinking, she pinched herself. "Maybe I'm more tired than I though," Saiya shook her head. Sotea sniffed around, taking a bite out of the wall that was next to them.

"Hey! That's not fair! I wanted to try it first!" Saiya yelled, putting her bag down along with Horo and Liru. Glaring, she grabbed two handfuls and stuffed them in her mouth. Then she stood still. Sotea looked at her, asking her if she was okay like he did before, a small voice echoing in her hand. Grabbing onto the rail of the bridge, she spit the stuff out, rubbing her tongue to get the taste out. "Ah! That was sick! How the hell did you eat that!" she yelled, feeling like gagging. It wasn't a pleasant experience, like a mixture of tasteless Jell-O and dirt. No wonder, it was wall after all.

Sighing, the Darlantan cleaned her hands off her pants then bent down to get her stuff. A yell was heard all throughout the place. "Where the hell is my bag!" Saiya yelled, getting onto all four and searching the ground. Panic drove its way through her. Her Cutlasses were gone too. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" she cried out while standing up onto her toes and looking across the bridge.

The only place to get through the world was that bridge and luckily enough, she saw her Cutlasses poking out above a crowd of brown-cloaked men, and also getting farther and farther away. The culprit turned around with a mischief grin on his face, nothing else showing from inside his hood. Growling, Saiya took off running, jumping over a stream of cloaks and landing wobbly back on the other side, never slowing down. Horo and Liru were her only weapons and the only way she could use her element….if she wanted to. She had to get those back.

And whoever stole them was going to pay dearly for making her run.

* * *

-**Gaudium-**

Mati flinched as her Armblade barely missed skewering her own stomach. Losing her balance, her feet slipped out from under her and she fell onto her butt, rubbing her head with her unarmed hand. Makenshi stood before her, weapon not even out and mask still on. The only thing he did was stare down at her with those bright green eyes. He didn't even help her up; his arms were still crossed.

For the past two hours the two had trained, or Mati had trained and Makenshi had made her look like a moron, but it was two hours all the same. Her body ached and was bruised and her newly healed wrist was starting to protest all the swings she was doing. Not one had actually hit her Protector or had been to his satisfaction. Pretty much, she sucked badly.

"Ow," she muttered quietly, using her Armblade to help herself off the ground. The man in white closed his eyes and sighed inaudibly, looking to the side. "You have no coordination when you attack. You just…. swing. That won't do if you want to stay alive," he said evenly, opening his eyes and staring at her unemotionally. Mati forced herself not to make eye contact and rubbed her injured wrist.

Before she had always trained with Saiya, since a while ago both had gotten out of training with Kaori (well, Sai was kicked out and Mati quit). So none of them really got past the basics with the fighting. They thought they could learn the more advanced stuff on their own. They knew their element, what more could you need? Apparently a lot more was needed.

The whole training session Mati was to attack and dodge. Dodging was easier for her since she was fast and had lots of practice from dodging all those attacks Saiya would throw at her. Attacking…dear goddess she wished she never had to attack anyone. Every attack she tried failed miserably; Makenshi didn't even have to have a weapon to block them. They never touched him!

Flipping her Armblade into Resting Position, the orange-eyed girl folded her hands together in front of her. "Sorry, I don't use my weapon much. I've only killed something once…" she muttered, remembering the creature that had attacked her in Darlanta. It was true, that was the first time she had ever really even injured something, let alone kill it.

Makenshi didn't say anything, just nodded and headed for the huge doorway that led back to the hallways. He was almost out when he stopped, turning around, "Get some rest. Don't wear out your wrist, you'll hurt yourself more." Then he left, leaving her dazed in the room. Sighing, she unclasped her Armblade, stretching her wrist around. She was never good with a weapon, but Mati hated always having to have someone else protect her. She wanted to protect herself, but that was beginning to become a distant dream.

Silently, the White Cloud walked back to the main room where the Earl and Lords were located. He jumped back up to his place in the wall, taking the usual stance as always; leg propped up, right arm around the Maken, his sword. Fungus was back, as a fuzz ball but he was still there. Apparently he hadn't succeeded in killing the threat. This only made Makenshi more suspicious if the intruder really was the Black Wind or not. He would find out later.

The Earl chomped on whatever was made for him, looking uninterestingly at Oscha. "How's Chaos doing?" the boy asked, swallowing another bite. The question was directed at the wiggling Oscha, arms merged into his body. The puppeteer seemed to grin behind the mask that hid his face. "He has just consumed another one of the Outside Worlds, Your Excellency, and he is doing fantastically well."

"And what else?"

Oscha seemed to pause, being cautious. "Your Excellency?"

"Tell me. There is something you're holding back."

"About that Man of the Black Wind, who uses the Magun…," Makenshi opened his eyes, looking down at them. _So he is awake_, "it is my guess from his abilities that he might be Unlimited." If Oscha could "grin" any bigger, he succeeded. It was almost like he was boasting about his find, even though the Earl didn't understand what it meant. "You say Unlimited?" the child asked, keeping the same dull look he always had.

"Unlimited means that the person's power exceeds that, " A spoon came flying, smacking the black draped Lord and stopping his wiggling, "…of gods." This pissed off the small ruler of Wonderland. Angrily, he glared at his henchmen while yelling, "I'm the only god in this world! There is nothing that exists that can exceed my power!" Oscha bowed almost sarcastically, "Yes, you are correct, of course…my Excellency."

Huffing, the boy straightened up, anger gone from his face. "Go take care of this meddling interloper. Alright, Makenshi?" The Earl yelled up at Kumo, who only closed his eyes and turned away from the gang. "And bring the girl with you!" Well, at least he didn't forget to add her, can't say the same about the name. Oscha went quiet, silently glaring at the warrior.

Herba floated over to the Earl, landing on the craft that he seemed to always be in. "If I may, Your Excellency, before Makenshi-baby does him in, I want to try taking a look at that precious little Magun darling," she said, Parasol resting in her green hand. The Earl rolled his eyes, "What's the matter, Herba? You want to have some more fun?" She smirked, "I do, very much."

The fuzz ball that was Fungus floated around her, bugging her to no ends. She tracked it with her eyes then got fed up, "Stop bugging us and get over where you belong, you pitiful loser," the flower woman said, flicking it away with her finger. The ball bounced and landed on the floor next to the brass pipe that the mushroom man always had. In an instant the pink fuzz turned into a miniature Fungus.

Taking a breath, he brushed himself off. "Well, I almost thought I was going to die!" Bringing his hand up, Fungus saluted. The Earl laughed un-amusingly, "Can the immortal Fungus be killed?" Walking over to his pipe, he began the process of trying to pick it up.

"I cannot die. Even if I am ripped to pieces and scattered all over the universe, I will still be able to come back to life…although I'm stuck like this for the moment. It will be a while before I can return to my original size." Blowing into the pipe, a small puff squeaked out. "What a fool," Herba muttered, rolling her eyes. Makenshi looked at all of them, pondering over his circumstances. _It is you…

* * *

_

-**Saiya-**

"Get back here, you stupid mother fu-" the Cutlass Wielder stopped herself before she yelled something out and got in trouble. She had passed through so many freaking places, her legs hurt, and Sotea was lost somewhere behind her. First it had been another grape, then a cave WITHIN the grape, then through a stupid hole that went to strawberry HOUSES. Seriously, who was the architecture on these things! Toucan Sam!

Growling even more, Saiya began to feel the pain in her legs. _No wonder I never made track in School,_ she thought, slowing down. Finally the little thief turned into one of the Strawberry buildings, giving her time to rest. Turning the corner, she stopped. _Wow…this is strange. I think that Jell-O wall went straight to my head…_Lots of cloaked men were inside the place, things dropping down from the ceiling and to tables where many were surrounding.

One thought came to her head when she saw this: Bar. That's exactly what it looked like. There was even a bar with a bartender on the far wall! _Whoa, dude…I think they're all getting drunk._ It wasn't hard for her to point out the obvious. "Guess things are the same everywhere when it comes to having bars," she whispered, scanning the place.

Stepping inside, Saiya felt unusually tall. I mean she was tall, but with all these things hunched over on the floor, she felt REALLY tall. Many of them only went to her waist. And they didn't even seem to care she was there, only kept drinking. _I bet this is the land of alcoholics…_She walked around, but couldn't see any of them carrying her Cutlasses or her bag. That feeling of dread was starting to inch up her spine, along with a shiver…She paid no attention to the second part, unaware of the man sitting in the shadows.

"No one opposes the Earl…You MUSN'T oppose the Earl, he's not of this world. Earl Tyrant is protected by the Four Lords of Gaudium. If you're looking for something you should ask them…if you don't value your life, that is." Kaze stared at him unemotionally, sinking in the information, but eyes trailing Saiya as she went around the bar. The cloaked man that was speaking to him shivered, "Chaos…he hasn't gotten to attack us."

Saiya heard this bit, turning her head in the direction she heard the voice, "What was that, excuse me?" All of the men quieted, staring at her while muttering things about "Chaos", whatever the hell that was. She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head then letting it fall. "Um…you didn't see a little dude, looks like you…only shorter, um, come running in here? Did you?"

All of them continued to stare. Looking over at them, she felt nervous, "Um, yeah, he's wearing the cloak…like all of you." Every single one of them was wearing the damn cloak! "Well, I see that all of you value individuality," she said sarcastically, feeling crowded. Like it was mentioned before, when she was nervous or scared, she made stupid jokes.

Suddenly, she wasn't feeling so tall anymore. "Uh, he came in here, didn't he…? Anyone…?" All of them stared and the room was quiet. Deciding to forget controlling her temper, Saiya threw her hands in the air, "Oh come on! He came here not even a second ago! I'm pretty sure you can tell who he is!" Growling, she stomped her foot. "He took my fu- eh, freaking bag and my Cutlasses, you know, WEAPONS! Now where the hell did he go!"

Without warning, the entire group moaned and shook, looking like they were having a heart attack. And then came the yell, "Argh!" They calm down, but began to advance towards her, freaking her out. They were mumbling again, but she could only catch some of them.

"It's useless to look for anything."

"Once you lose something, you can never get it back again!"

"Once you come to Wonderland, you must obey the rules here!"

"This is the rule of….Wonderland…"

Over and over again she kept hearing: "It's the rule! It's the rule!" Finally, Saiya couldn't take it anymore. She bit her lip then yelled out shakily, "Like hell it is!" and then ran out of the bar, leaving the group and Kaze behind. The Black Wind stared at the doorway then closed his eyes behind his broken shades. _Chaos…_

Saiya kept running, not caring where she was going. She just had to get away. In her head, she repeated, _it's not true, it's not true. _But there was a cold feeling in her heart that made her fall to the ground, clenching the skin over where the organ was. _Goddess, it hurts so badly…_She struggled to push back tears. That one voice kept entering her head through her chants of thoughts. _"Once you lose something, you can never get it back again!"_

She had lost her bag, Horo and Liru, Mati, Vause, Darlanta, and Rachel (in her mind, Rachel was still at the bottom of her list). Did that mean she would never find them? Was this just a lost cause? _I can feel the Darkness in my blood. If it eats my heart, will I lost that forever too?_ The thought was so painful. She had grown up being taught that Light was good, Darkness was evil. That villains used the Darkness to destroy good people. So that was what she believed…did that make her a villain?

"Somebody…help me…" she whispered, a tear trailing down her cheek. The wind picked up, drawing her eyes behind a houses of Watermelons where a light was coming from. The faint sound of the Ocean came to her, reminding her of the shore outside of Darlanta. "The…ocean…?" Saiya muttered before hastily wiping away her tears and walking towards the light.

Her eyes widened as she stood in front of what was causing the light. It was a large clam with huge pearls stringing inside of it, looking more like bubbles. The inside was peach and pink, making it look unusually happy and bright. In the center looked like a throne of Coral, a small pedestal rising up to look like a spiky shell. On the throne was a woman dressed in a yellow and pink cloak (they seemed to be popular, apparently) with two long tresses coming out on either side like pig tails.

The woman was beautiful, with long white hair, greenish blue eyes, and an elegant purple dress underneath. She smiled at Saiya, looking calm and gentle. All the fear that was inside the twenty year old vanished and she took a few steps forward. She paused when the woman spoke, "I am Fabula, your guide. Welcome, Saiya of Darlanta."

_How the hell did she…? _Saiya shook her head and stepped into the clam, hoping it wasn't a trick. God that would be her luck. All she had to do was step inside and the thing would probably slam down and kill her. Casting away those thoughts, she began to notice that she was really close to the lady now. Like right-in-front-of-her close. "Tell me, what is it that you are looking for?" Fabula said gently, the smile still on her lips.

_In general or just now? _She thought, looking confusingly at the woman. "Um…I lost my bag and my weapons," Saiya mumbled, rubbing her neck. Fabula nodded, "I see…" For a moment, the thought that had been haunting her ran through her head and came out of her mouth, "They told me that once you lose something, you can never get it back…I don't know if I should believe that or if I should just…I don't know, and you probably don't care."

"Do you believe what they say?"

Saiya looked up at her. Did she? There had been times before in her life where she had lost something and she thought she'd never find it, but it would show up eventually. But this was a different circumstance. It was a different world, a different rule…"I don't know what I believe anymore. It shouldn't matter anyways. I'm a bad guy, Darkness runs through me. For all I know, those guys that attacked me were probably the good guys," she said quietly, looking at the ground.

"You were raised to believe that evil was darkness and good was light…but that's not true if you believe it's not. Saiya of Darlanta, a person is not evil just because they of the darkness. Evil destroys and good protects. And then there are the places in between, those places that fight for their own reasons, those places that are both good and evil. Darkness and Light is not always evil and good, its your belief that makes them that way. So, do you believe that you are evil?"

The Cutlass Wielder stared down and placed her hand over her heart. Then with confidence, she looked up at Guide. "I'm not evil or good. I'm just looking for my hope," she said, a small smile on her face. Fabula smiled back. "Embrace the power that's within your heart and blood. Only then can you succeed in where all those other Darkness Wielders have failed. And take this," the Clam Maiden touched a pearl bubble, popping it and letting an item drop into her hand.

Fabula held it out to Saiya, who took it hesitantly. It was silver necklace. Hanging down from the chain were two arrows wrapped around each other like a vine, a little statue of a small girl with angel wings, a headband and a short dress, and what she thought were stockings, on top of the arrows. Suddenly, a little puff of smoke surrounded the figure and it popped up in her hand. _What the…!_ The small girl was about the size of her thumb with short dark green hair, a bright yellow headband and dress, and green stockings. The wings that were on her back were a lighter green and flapped vigorously. To say the least, there was a tiny flying thingy on her hand.

"Wow, that was painful," the small girl said, stretching and rising into the air. Fabula smiled even more, "Jade, meet your new host, Saiya of Darlanta. Saiya, this is your helper, she's a Paulta, the last of her kind. Her name is Jade and she will try to help you the best she can, won't you?" Jade shrugged, "Guess so. In other words, that means you're stuck with me!" Saiya felt the excitement rising in her weakly. Oh great, now all she needed was her freaking Cutlasses.

A muya echoed somewhere near the Watermelon houses, making her run out of the houses. Slipping on the arrow necklace, Saiya ran out with Jade flying next to her above her shoulder. Arriving at the source, she found Sotea sitting on the ground, tails swaying, and holding in his mouth….her Cutlasses! And also a piece of brown fabric…Grinning, the woman looked towards the tiny flying creature, "Wow, you work fast."

Jade furrowed her eyebrows, "I didn't do anything. That was just luck!" Saiya just shrugged, "Whatever, then you're my freaking good luck charm. Still, I got my Cutlasses back!" She strapped her weapons onto her back, having the comfortable feeling of them with her again. _Right now my choir should be singing "Alleluia" again, _She thought sarcastically. Her mood was soon spoiled as she heard the familiar sound of a ship over head.

* * *

_"Prophecy. The woman in love with plants. Another fateful meeting. A newfound confidence and hope. Nothing is lost forever. Believe that Saiya, and you can conquer even your worst fears. Don't have fear in those abilities that lay dormant in your heart. The little one shall help you discover this. Next time… Vause, The End of Loneliness. Come back for more Unlimited Guidance."

* * *

_

Rayne: Dammit! This was suppose to be short! And I didn't even do the full episode! Why do I have a feeling this is gonna be a long story? Yeah, just review, or don't, or do whatever. Yeah…


	7. Where The Authoress Tries Something New

It's been a very long time since I've been in the world of fanfiction.  
Ten times longer since I've been in **Final Fantasy: Unlimited** fanfiction.

I've spent the past three to four years working on my own original books and developing my writing abilities.

Reading this story, I can't help but cringe.

**So, here is the point to this update:**  
**I want to rewrite this story.**

**BUT, I wanna know if anyone would be interested.**

I'm very busy with work, college, and trying to update my books before the readers chew my head off so if I know that people will actually read this, it might help to juggle this all.

So, interested?

I promise it'll be ten times better than this….thing.


End file.
